I Can Wait For You
by PikaSass
Summary: Warning: an AAML with a weird ending. Starts out with an Ash and Misty summer love, but ends...well, you have to read to find out how it ends! 100% twerpshipping, just a different angle on the ending...oh just read it! ^_^


DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokémon.

A/N: Okay guys, this story is kinda different to the others out there. Bad ending maybe. You'll probably all hate it, but I assure you there is a sequel coming! Anyways, R&R or R&F, whatever you prefer! 

It was a sight that made any elder nostalgic of their days as youths. A young but obviously very happy couple had their arms around each others shoulders as their gazes were simultaneously drifting to the ocean. Seafoam Island was one of Kanto's hot spots for the summer holidays, and the summer loves that blossomed from this origin were countless.

How many survived beyond Seafoam Island were another matter. As Summer gave way to Fall, communication between young lovers were similar to the leaves that faltered from trees in what many called the "survival season." If you made it past Fall, it was considered a serious relationship.

Misty Waterflower had no doubt in her mind that she was a survivor in anything she did. So she knew this relationship she had with Ash Ketchum would go past Fall. It would live to see many more Falls, to ascend from the summer love category into the serious sector. 

Having met three months ago, when summer was barely emerging from behind her spring shield, Ash and Misty had had no trouble hitting it off after being introduced by separate friends. Or, in Misty's case, her trio of older sisters.

"You two should, like, go out or something" Daisy had suggested after Ash and Misty had conversed for well over an hour.

Misty winced. "I don't need a boyfriend."

"Geez Misty, this is, like, your only opportunity to get on with an amazing guy, and you're totally passing it up!" Violet had exclaimed.

"And your point is...?" Misty had said flatly.

"Her point is, like, okay...you guys got on real well. VERY well" Lily teased mischievously. "Would it kill you to, like, see him one more time before we leave?"

"We're not leaving until the end of summer" Misty had reminded them. "Another three months."

But despite Misty's protests and denial that she and Ash had got on better than she cared to realise, the so-called coincidental meetings had accumulated to feelings even determined Misty couldn't stop.

Thus the two 16-year olds were experiencing their first loves. Neither one was complaining however. Now, as the sun almost sank into the water to shine in another part of the world, Ash and Misty were sitting side by side, Misty's head casually resting on Ash's shoulder.

"Two days" she whispered, shattering the calm that had been surrounding them. "It's not long, is it?"

"Don't think about it" Ash shook his head as he spoke. "At least it's something." He gently placed a finger under her chin and tilted her face to meet his eyes. His tools of vision, tools he considered so simple, were so full of warmth they inwardly made Misty melt with one glance.

"Yeah" Misty smiled, once again turned around by Ash. It didn't take much for him to convince her of a lot of things, and in this case, he had turned the negativity of his leaving in two days to the positivity of forty-eight hours together before he did so.

"Why do you have to live so far away, kiddo?" Ash asked rhetorically, using the nickname he had bestowed upon Misty at first sight. Her tiny frame and child-lit eyes didn't do her justice when it came to her age.

"Cerulean City is not the next planet, you know" Misty shrugged. "It's not like we can't call, or visit, or write."

Ash sighed. "But I've got my training, and you've got school...it's gonna be hard."

Misty placed a finger to his lips in a successful attempt to hush him. "Come on, Ash. You were the one saying we've got to use what we've got. Don't go hypocrisising your words now."

"Okay okay" Ash conceded. "I suppose now is the time I herd you back to your sisters, right?" 

"Damn, it is too" Misty said in disappointment as she checked her watch. "I'm supposed to be cooking tonight. You want in?" she asked mischievously, to which Ash reflected the grin.

"I think I'll spare my stomach tonight, thanks." This sentence resulted in a playful punch and a giggle from Misty, and then the reluctant act of actually standing up and walking slowly back to the beach house Misty's sisters had rented for the summer. This particular walk was always slow, as the two of them tried to prolong the same distance every evening. 

But the inevitable always happened. They always ended up on her front porch too quickly, found themselves exchanging goodbyes and making plans to meet the next day, before the final kiss of the day was exchanged, confirming, not for the first time, how rapidly these feelings were growing.

"So you'll come over tomorrow then?" Ash asked hopefully.

Misty tenderly touched his cheek with an amused and contented smile. "Of course I will. You know I will."

"Okay." Ash nodded and initiated the kiss that followed, loving the sensation of having it returned with the same power of love he was feeling. "I love you" he murmured as they pulled apart.

"I love you too" Misty replied simply. She let her hands falter onto his wrists, where his hands were firmly holding her waist. "Until tomorrow then."

"Parting is such sweet sorrow" Ash said dramatically. Misty laughed and kissed him briefly again.

"Goodnight Ash."

"Night Mist." And with that Misty breezed through the front door, leaning against it after she closed it, still wondering, after three months, if this was all a crazy dream. Something one of her sisters would surely shake her out of soon. A dream that would soon dissolve into the torturous reality of dreary life back in Cerulean. 

"So how was smoochies today?" Lily asked as she walked in, witnessing Misty in her usual happy-dazed-airy state after a day out with Ash.

"Must you call him that?" Misty asked in exasperation.

"Well ain't it the truth" Lily said teasingly. "Do you honestly think that porch is totally obscured?"

"No" Misty sighed. "And even if it was, you three would find some way of having a wee look in anyways."

Lily's face flushed in embarrassment and she swiftly changed the subject. "Daisy's pissed at you. She wanted you back earlier so you could cook."

"I can still cook if I'm twenty minutes late" Misty said non-chalantly, walking towards the kitchen. "Daaaaaaaisy!" she yelled out.

"Misty, finally! I wish you wouldn't spend all your time, like, sucking the face of that guy" Daisy rolled her eyes.

"Oh god, do you really have to put it like that?" Misty cringed. "Besides, you were the one who said we should be going out."

"Well I was naïve and stupid back then" Daisy shrugged. "Anyways, you're up for cooking duty. So get to it cos I'm famished. I nearly ended up defrosting one of those disgusting TV dinner things. I could've sworn the acid in my stomach was eating away at me for lack of food!"

Misty let the ranting of her older sister drift to the back of her mind as she started pulling various things out of the cupboards and fridge. She didn't find it unusual to be thinking of Ash only a minute after she'd left him, and a smile came to her face, causing Daisy to raise an eyebrow.

"What are you, like, so happy about?" she asked accusingly.

Misty sighed. "Just thinking" she replied vaguely.

"Oh let me guess what you're thinking of" Daisy said sarcastically. "Or should I say, who you're thinking of."

"There's no need for jealously" Misty said teasingly.

Daisy scowled. "I'm not jealous" she muttered.

"You are!" Misty exclaimed with a laugh. "Look at you! You're sour because things didn't work out with Michael!" At the mentioning of her ex-boyfriend, Daisy's eyes flew wide open and she glared at her younger sister.

"Don't you ever bring that name up again" she said darkly. "He has got nothing to do with..."

"With what? Your ongoing envy towards me because I'm happy?" Misty asked in exasperation. "Can you not be a fraction happy for me? You know this year hasn't been the best for me, you know that I didn't wanna move to this new school and that I wouldn't fit in there. Then this small glimmer of happiness gets thrown my way and all you can do is be jealous or upset or angry!" Her words were now coming out in a flurry and her eyes were narrowing much like Daisy's.

"Well it'll all be over in two days anyway" Daisy shrugged. "Then we can all forget about him and go on with a normal life."

"I won't be forgetting him" Misty said firmly.

"Maybe so" Daisy replied. "But will he be remembering you?"

"Of course he will!" Misty yelled in shock.

"What if he goes back to Pallet and meets some nice little country girl who somehow manages to push you outta his mind? Then what?" Daisy asked rhetorically. "Summer love is summer love, so-called love reserved only for that particular season. You and Ash will be no special exception."

At this point Misty had nothing but shock and anger ravaging through her, and she angrily slammed the contents of her potential dinner on the kitchen bench. Without even thinking twice, she charged up to Daisy and stomped on her sister's bare right foot with the heel of her shoe. 

"OW!" Daisy exclaimed as the sharp pain shot through her. "Ow, shit Misty! You can damage nerves doing that! God..." Balancing precariously on one foot, Daisy inspected the wounded foot with a grave face.

"You deserved that" Misty muttered. "That and a whole lot more."

"Bullshit. Love shouldn't be called love. It should be called naïvity. Because that's all it's doing to you" Daisy said darkly.

Misty paused. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that at the moment you're so swept up in the flattery Ash is laying at your feet that you refuse to see anything else. One day you'll wake up and wonder what the hell you ever saw in him" Daisy explained.

"Shut up!" Misty yelled. "What would you know? You, the girl who got dumped for a cheerleader!"

"Okay, what the hell is going on in here?" Violet demanded to know as she walked into the kitchen.

"She's jealous!"

"She's being a stupid bitch!"

"DON'T CALL ME A BITCH, LOSER!" 

"TIME OUT!" Violet screamed before Daisy could retaliate. "I don't know what this is about, nor do I care, but for god's sake, shut up and separate, this is no fun to listen to."

"Sorry Miss Peacemaker" Daisy sneered. With that she sulked off to her room, throwing one last glare in Misty's direction, and forcefully slammed the door on the painful memories that her little sister had brought to the surface.

Misty sighed. "Thankyou Violet."

"Don't thank me" Violet said harshly. "I'm not on sides. You can sort this out for yourselves. Get dinner going, none of us can wait much longer."

Misty was taken aback by her sister's icy tone but didn't show it. Instead she turned back to the temporarily abandoned dinner and tried to shove all dark thoughts of Daisy and what she had said out of her head.

*******

Two days later, Misty purposely woke up early, knowing she couldn't waste a minute of her last day with Ash. A quick shower and meger piece of toast later, she was happily bounding down to his batch, which was only five minutes walk from hers. The sunrise of the day had only barely emerged but the beauty of it was still imprinted on the beach.

As Misty approached the batch she had come to know so well in such a short amount of time, she slowed her pace at a sight that both confused and shocked her. She hadn't expected it at a beach, and most certainly not in front of Ash's batch. What would half a dozen police cars be doing parked out front?

She hesitantly walked forward, ignoring the silent but blaring lights and the incessant jargon various cops were rattling off into radios. As she headed for the door she felt a hand on her arm and sharply turned around to meet an unfamiliar face.

"Excuse me miss, where are you planning on heading?" It was a cop, of course, but why did he need to ask her where she was going?

"To see my boyfriend" she replied calmly. 

"And where would your boyfriend be?"

"In that batch" Misty said, indicating the batch.

The cop bit his lip and eyed her seriously. "You obviously don't know what happened this morning."

"Oh my god!" Misty yelled suddenly. "He's dead, isn't he? Some knife-welding maniac went in there and killed my Ash!" Tears rapidly formed in her eyes at the unconfirmed thought and the cop stared at her in bewilderment.

"No miss, Ash Ketchum is very much alive. But earlier this morning he was discovered having possession of marijuana" the cop explained.

Misty stared at him blankly, as if she hadn't heard him properly. "Excuse me, what?" she asked weakly. "Marijuana? Ash doesn't smoke that shit."

"He may not smoke it, but it was found in this batch."

Misty's throat froze over and she took a step away from the policeman. "No...n-no, Ash wouldn't do that." She shook her head as she spoke. "He's too decent, he wouldn't...he'd tell me if he did something like that."

"It was twenty ounces of marijuana and it was in his bedroom. I'm sorry, miss, this must be a shock to you" the cop said genuinely.

"NO!" Misty screamed. "It's not a shock because it's not true! This is crazy! It must be April the 1st or something, this is not happening!" Without realising her actions she stormed towards the small house and only made it to the porch before a sight she didn't want to see made her halt with a gasp.

It was Ash. But he wasn't alone. He was being restrained by two policeman. No handcuffs, but escape would be impossible, not to mention stupid. 

"Ash..." Misty whispered. The word was barely audible, but Ash heard it and looked at her with eyes almost as pained as hers.

The cop that had been talking to Misty went up to the two restraining Ash and said something that made them release Ash. "We'll give you two minutes, Ketchum" one of them warned, but neither left his side, even when he slowly approached Misty.

She could only look at him in utter confusion. After 20 seconds of straight silence, she remembered the time limit and spoke up. "Ash, what's going on?" she asked feebly.

Ash sighed. "They caught me doing something I should've stopped ages ago."

"So it's true? You're a...a drug dealer?" Misty searched his eyes for the truth, although she could no longer distinguish that herself now. How did one distinguish truth when the best three months of their lives had been a lie?

"No" Ash said sharply. "Mist, I..." He hesitated before he continued. "I needed the money for pokémon tech, Mom can't afford it anymore, you...you don't understand, it's so hard, I couldn't work and I never win pokémon battles..."

"That's bullshit, Ash!" Misty suddenly exclaimed. "You're a great trainer! You know it!"

"I'm not" Ash protested. "Look, I sold the stash so I could make a couple of bucks, at a beach in summer it's easy money" he explained.

"So why didn't you tell me?" Misty probed further.

"Because I knew you'd freak" Ash said simply.

"Of course I'd bloody well freak!" Misty yelled. "But Ash, if you had told me the truth, if you had told me that you needed money that desperately we could've worked something out. Something legal" she added.

"I didn't know where else to turn" Ash confessed, tears undeniably glazing his eyes.

Misty hesitantly reached out to touch his arm. "You should've turned to me" she said softly. "I love you. I would've done anything to stop you doing this."

"Really?" Ash asked, to which Misty nodded. "You must hate me now."

"I probably should" Misty said bluntly. "Is this the only time you've ever done this or anything like this?"

"I swear Mist, the only time, first and last, it'll never happen again" Ash vowed.

"It'll be hard to make happen when you're behind bars" Misty said quietly.

Ash paused at the sting of the words his love had just bestowed on him. It was true. No doubt he would be spending some amount of time in jail.

"I love you, Misty" Ash said, his eyes never leaving hers for an instant.

Misty nodded. "Ash, I want you to know that this is the most deceitful thing anyone has ever done to me. And to think that the guy I love would lie to me like this for three months really...it kills me." Her voice broke on the emotions building up inside her and she inhaled deeply before continuing. "Love is built on trust, and you have no idea how badly you've burned a hole in the trust I felt towards you."

"So you do hate me" Ash said despairingly. "Misty, it was once, I'll never ever do it again, I love you so much -"

"Ash" Misty interrupted forcefully. "I don't hate you. I still love you. I can't help feeling that, no matter what you've done. But...god, it's gonna be a long long time before I trust you ever again. It'll never be the same. Tomorrow won't be the same as yesterday in terms of my faith and trust in you. It will be vastly different. I might even feel uncomfortable the next time I see you."

The last sentence Misty had just spoken hit Ash harder than any court sentence ever would. He'd done more damage in the little things he had overlooked. The little things that mattered.

"A long time, Ash" Misty repeated. 

"I can wait for you" Ash said firmly.

Misty smiled. "I'll be waiting for you first. Waiting for you to get out of jail and wipe the slate clean."

Ash reflected the smile and slowly leaned over to give her one of the most passionate and meaningful kisses either of them had ever experienced. "I'm so sorry Misty" he mumbled.

"Shhh" Misty hushed him and kissed him again, firmly holding his hands before she felt a slight tug at them. She opened her eyes and directed her gaze down towards them, noticing that Ash was now cuffed at the wrists.

"God, I can't believe this is happening" she choked out. "Please don't forget me."

"Forget you? You're crazy" Ash said teasingly. "Of course I won't forget you. I'll think about you every minute of every day, and I'll think about the day I get outta that cell and into your arms again."

"It won't be the same" Misty cautioned again.

"But it'll be you, that's all that matters" Ash said. Another quick kiss followed and then he was herded away by the two cops who had stood by the whole scene without uttering a word. He gave her a last sad smile before he was shoved in the car, his face shaded by the tinted windows.

"Misty!" Misty vaguely heard her name being called throughout the muddle of her mind and slowly turned to see all three of her sisters approaching her. Their eyes were all wide with surprise and immediately Violet and Lily rushed up to hug her.

"What happened?" Daisy asked.

"Ash was arrested. For drug possession" Misty said flatly, her eyes cast towards the ground. "Go ahead and laugh, say I was naïve and stupid to fall in love with him, but he swore he only did it once and I...I..." She drew in a deep breath. "I dunno what to believe anymore."

Daisy was quiet. Without another word, she embraced her now sobbing younger sister in her arms in a silent hug of minimal yet valuable comfort.

"He only did it once, sweetheart" Daisy said as they pulled apart. "I know he did. He was too decent."

Misty was shocked by the words her usually envious sister had just spoken out loud and could only silently accept them with a small smile.

"Come on guys, let's head back" Lily suggested quietly. The four Waterflower sisters turned around and slowly started walking away from the unbelievable scene, arms around shoulders as a human barrier of support. But the youngest Waterflower was the only one to look back. She was looking back on the laughter, the trust, the love that had surrounded her at this place for three months.

And now she would be looking towards a disrupted faith, an unsure honesty, and, hopefully, a love that would rise above all these things when Ash came back to her.

A/N: Stop throwing tomatoes! I KNOW it's not your usual AAML thingy, but I dare to be different! Go ahead and flame, it only makes me more determined to write quirkier stories! The thought of Ash being arrested is far fetched to some of you, I know! So let me hear about it. Review, and look out for the sequel coming soon!


End file.
